A/N

Episode 3 events got a bit changed here, because I don't think Abby or Connor (or anyone else) was allowed into water that's not exactly see-through for collecting water samples without more than one person with a BIG gun to keep them company, if it was believed there could be a big wild animal which happened to be a meat-eater, as well, and I don't think Abby lived that long working with wild animals if she was suicidal enough to refuse that sort of escort, and I believe that technology could be used so the nice and, er, little creature Connor whacked with an oar would've been noticed rather quickly.

4. Thicker Than Wha?..

- You look really good.

Stephen.

Connor, too, whatever he was doing there. Abby heard something about iPods when she was almost at the door, but… wait. Hadn't Stephen just given her a once-over or what?

Abby Maitland felt something warm flutter and settle in her stomach, just like in the trash books. Yes! No, Abby thought, not until she could be absolutely sure they weren't related! After all, she didn't keep that snake pendant for nothing. Couldn't… throw it away. Just couldn't. And didn't she look appropriate for the occasion right then, with not too much flesh exposed?

So she wasn't about to panick, but… But he complimented her. Right. So she could as well be a good girl and tell him...

- Thanks.

He was talking about the bother. Oh, none at all, why would Stephen think that? Well... Probably because she left him earlier on, without any explanation. She'd change that, and soon!

Connor joked, probably. Something about the nurse... She didn't really listen. She had eyes and ears for one man in the room only, just like in the books.

- Come on, I'll give you a lift home.

So they'd get a chance to talk, without anybody to eavesdrop on them. A weird conversation that would be, of course, but she had to manage... And Stephen dropped a bombshell called Alison.

Abby Maitland suspected that she hated romance novels. Now... Now she knew.

- I'd better go. Bye.

Connor kept trying to joke, and she rushed to save face, of her own. After all, Stephen could be just another guy who missed his girlfriend, a guy who didn't live like a monk and enjoyed the company of a silly Abby or two while this, this... Alison girl did her research in the rainforest. Right?

It hurt all the same.

- Abby? Er... can I ask you a quick favour?

She wasn't listening. Connor asked that favour of her anyway, whatever it was. Abby moved to the window. Connor kept talking in the background. She waited. Any minute now...

There!

Stephen nodded at... Alison, right? Well, she was pretty enough, this one, if tired-looking. Stephen gave his girl a smile, and she smiled back. Abby unstuck herself off the window glass.

She didn't want Stephen to see her, not like that. Huh, as if he'd want to glance up! Connor went on speaking about something, probably humourish or science fiction-related...

- Yeah, whatever. We'll talk about it later, Connor. Bye.

She brushed past him. A girlfriend? Stephen's? No matter! Abby walked down the hospital corridor. Didn't feel like running this time.

At all!

What's the point, even if she did? What really mattered, oh yes, a... conversation. The weird one she still wanted to have with Stephen, Alison or no Alison.

...But they couldn't. Talk, that is. Properly.

First, his mobile got out of range, and Abby suspected a certain Alison had a say or two about it. Then, or, rather, before the whole Alison fiasco, she supposed, a man became creature lunch in Crystal Palace Diving Institute.

A bit later the Home Office sonar pinpointed a something in reservoir waters, and Stephen bravely went for a dive with Cutter and Co., all of them nicely armed and dressed in wet suits, of course.

Abby felt her heart skip a bit, and another one. And one more. And again.

She'd vowed to burn those terrible books already. Fingered the snake pendant in one of her pockets, drank more of that coffee Stephen brought her before diving. Wait a sec... That wasn't Connor she'd just seen lurking about, no? Abby blinked. Sniffed at her steaming plastic cup. Even if it was Connor, she couldn't care less at the moment.

- You! You had absolutely no reason to kill it! This animal just came to the surface, and you!..

Abby watched as professor Cutter berated Captain Ryan's men for shooting a beautiful, if lethal mosasaur first and asking questions later. It was a beauty, she agreed. But, given the size of its teeth... Deep down, Abby Maitland knew that she felt tempted to agree with the soldiers.

Only for a brief, VERY brief moment. Still and all...

- Are you all right?

Stephen. Looking at her, concern written all over his handsome face, damn him. And those books!

- Yeah. Lucky me. Not even allowed to help with the samples in troubled waters, you know. Not that I longed to.

Claudia Brown was siding with the captain on the matter of shot mosasaur. Stephen moved closer to Abby. She could almost feel his breath on her cheek. Almost...

- Abby, uh... I meant to tell you... I've been remembering... things.

She focused on the coffee. Tried to focus on it.

- Yeah?

But it proved so hard to do! Stephen, too close for comort, still in that wet suit of his, looking at her, saying that he liked her, that Alison wasn't really...

- Wait up.

Her hands were trembling, and she knew it. Now, where was this little snake on a chain...

- See? You've got one, and this is mine, just like yours. That's why I couldn't stay. At the... at the hospital, I mean. It was too... much. I had to find out, for sure. I still do! And, er... I'm babbling, right?

It got hard to breathe. Like in the books... Somewhere, somehow Abby knew she'd find time to burn them, later.

- I wanted to throw it away, but it just... I couldn't. God, it's wicked!

Stephen's eyes widened a little.

- My mother said that she tried, but didn't get rid of the pendant. That day, she nearly turned a cat into road kill.

Abby didn't like the sound of this.

- You followed me?

He frowned.

- Why would I? That's family history. My family history.

She took a step back.

- Or a coincidence. What if...

He was looking at her. She didn't like that look! Strangely hopeful. Lacking the way he eyed her before.

- What if it's true, Abby? Strange, but true? The anomalies...

No way, mister. She had enough strangeness for a day. She turned to go! Stephen didn't follow her, but he didn't stop talking either. Hopefully. Quietly. Almost to himself.

- The snake reminded my mother of her aunt Muriel. It... sort of had the same facial expression.

Abby Maitland crashed her empty coffee cup.

- Stephen, I've never told anybody about that.

She turned to face him again.

- Now what? D'you know a DNA wizard who won't cart both of us to a loony bin if we ask for a maternity test?

Stephen grinned.

- I might.

Neither of them saw an undergraduate student in a hat behind one of the Home Office cars, to their right.

The undergrad missed too many seminars and figured missing one more wouldn't hurt, so... He crept up as close as possible. He shivered. He wanted some coffee, too, but no-one brought him a cup. He didn't exactly catch everything said by the reservoir, but wind gusted at him a word or two. Words like "mother", spoken in Stephen's voice, and "DNA". Abby said it. Beautiful Abby... The student shivered again.

Off to his left, Captain Ryan was getting royally vocal, unintentionally expanding the student's vocabularly. Professor Cutter kept up with the Captain, just as expertly. Claudia Brown stood in between, hands in the air.

Atop a not-so-far-off building, a woman watched them all through binoculars and munched on her apple.